They say that it is advisable to reflect about what has been done
and learned when you are about to close a stage/cycle. This type of exercise is
not my forte but I’ll try to do it (at least, for once in my life!). These are
only a few words but at least it is a start.

Overall, writing a PhD thesis is an endurance race. The winner is
not the one who runs faster or arrives first at one of the posts, but the one
who doesn’t give up until the moment of writing the "acknowledgments"
on the first pages of the document. Many times I’d have liked to stop at one of
those posts and start with another type of race, but I decided to go all the
way until the finish line. Beyond what happens with that large document, having
arrived already feels like a victory (albeit partial, at the moment).

Now that I have reached the goal, I can clearly observe all the
zigzags that my thesis’ topic has experienced. When I arrived Hobart, I had a
clear idea of my area of ​​interest but I was unable to precisely define (although
at that time I didn’t want to recognize it) the object and focus of my thesis.
After many twists and turns (not only with the document but also with all the
moves from place to place while attending many events, conferences, etc.) a
group of international civil society organizations, that are working on issues
related to Freedom of Information (FOI) or the Open Government Data agenda (OGD),
became my clear objective. The thesis slowly changed from a public policy analysis
to a (closer to sociology of organizations and the implications of changes in
information environments) multidisciplinary study than to the law thesis that
the faculty wanted (clearly this claim was evaporated after 5 minutes of
meeting me). This mix of approaches now makes the task of finding reviewers not
the easiest of tasks to my supervisor…

One of the clearest benefits of this period was the possibility to
interact with many of the actors (from different fields and nationalities) who
develop agendas both regionally and globally. While I’ve known many of the
actors in the FOI field for many years, from 2010 onwards I became interested in
OGD as well -at that time I thought that OGD was just the next step for FOI.
However, soon after I realized that the movement wasn’t that lineal-.

During this research, I was surprised (actually, I confirmed my
suspicions) about the lack of interaction between the governmental
information-related areas. In the last period of this research, “building
bridges” between these two communities became almost an obsession for me (suffered
by many in different events!). Thus, this thesis not only possesses a blend of
approaches but also my involvement, in practical terms, in these two areas hasn’t
been the most conventional of the paths for those writing a thesis. If I had
stayed on my desk in Hobart more often, I probably would have ended earlier,
but that was an impossible task for me to accomplish!

My perception of civil society actors in both areas has not
necessarily changed, from the beginning of the thesis, however that perception
is currently based on tangible and concrete reasons. Hence, now I can
understand why each community acts the way it operates and it is organized in
the way it does. While in practice there are many nuances, this research
allowed me to understand the origins and rationale for these differences and
the lack of interest, from the actors in both fields, in connecting with each
other. This better understanding of the theories behind FOI and OGD was complemented
with the analysis of the predominant organizational structures in these areas.
From this combination I could understand the importance of changes in the
"information environment" not only for groups working in areas where ICT
has been an inherent component of its mission and vision (OGD), but also
organizations in other areas, such as FOI, when they are created after the
massive diffusion of these ICT tools.

It is clear that the topic is not resolved with a thesis or any
other research. Both FOI and OGD are areas in constant change and thus new
questions (together with others that are not yet resolved) continually arise.
But this is not a post about the future challenges or further research but a
reflection (partly product of jet-lag) about the last 4 years. I will soon focus on the future but, at least
for today, I think it is a good exercise to analyze the cycle that just ended.